The successful development of the area of West Tampa attracted the attention of the city of Tampa, which had incorporated Ybor City in 1887. However, Hugh Macfarlane led opposition to a merger with Tampa. On May 18, 1895, a bill passed the state legislature creating West Tampa as a separate municipality. At that time the city already had a population of 2,815. West Tampa elected Fernando Figueredo as its first mayor. He had arrived in 1894, a hero of the Ten-Years War in Cuba. Men of differing national origins took part in the governing of West Tampa. Cubans, Spaniards, Italians and Anglos were elected to office and had a voice in the city's development, but the community was overwhelmingly a product of immigration. In 1910, it had a population of 8,258, of whom only 626 were native whites with native parents.

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Funded in part by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Ephemeral Cities Project.